ER Doctors To Crack Down On Prescribing Painkillers

DENVER (CBS4) – Emergency room doctors in the Denver metro area are cracking down on how they disperse prescription painkillers.

Citing a nationwide increase in overdoses, many doctors are now restricting the types and amounts of addictive painkillers they administer to patients.

Denver Health is no longer filling long-term prescriptions for painkillers like Percocet, oxycontin and vicodin. The concern is that some patients who are hooked on the pills are going into the emergency room for pills instead of seeing their regular physicians.

University of Colorado Hospital is also planning to no longer fill prescriptions that patients claim were lost or stolen.